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You’re absolutely right about the role of footer links in SEO and user experience. They serve as a navigational aid, allowing users to access important pages easily. Moreover, they contribute to SEO by enhancing the crawling and indexing of web pages. However, it’s crucial to use them judiciously to avoid penalties from search engines like Google for manipulative practices.

Footer links are hyperlinks placed at the bottom (footer) section of a website. They can include links to social media profiles, contact information, copyright notices, or other internal pages. Properly optimized footer links can enhance user experience by providing quick access to relevant pages and help search engine bots crawl deeper within a site. Crawling and Indexing: Footer links allow search engine bots to index deeper pages more efficiently. They help distribute “link juice” throughout the site via interlinked articles. Overuse or poor optimization can make footer links appear spammy. Google may penalize sites if footer links are used solely to manipulate rankings.

where is my post?

Duplicate Content Issue:
Having duplicate content on your website can be problematic for search engines like Google. It can lead to confusion about which page should be ranked and indexed, potentially affecting your site's search engine rankings.

Canonicalization:
Canonicalization is a method used to inform search engines about the preferred version of a page when multiple versions of the same content exist. It helps prevent duplicate content issues and consolidates the ranking signals for the same content.

Based on your description, it seems you have a situation where the main URL and the main URL/index.html are both accessible and show the same content. While you mentioned it's not an issue for you because the main URL doesn't work without the index.html page, it's still considered best practice to handle this properly for SEO reasons.